Elections within 90 days only possible under old census: Ahsan Iqbal

ISLAMABAD: Minister for Planning and Development Ahsan Iqbal on Tuesday asserted that holding of upcoming general elections within 90 days was only possible on the basis of old census, ARY News reported.

“The upcoming general elections would be delayed if the digital census 2023 gets approval,” the planning minister warned in a statement issued today.

Responding to the prime minister’s remarks, Ahsan Iqbal said that holding of upcoming general elections within 90 days was only possible on the basis of old census.

“Once the census is notified, the Election Commission starts working on delimitations of constituencies”, he said, adding that the electoral watchdog takes a final decision on the holding of elections.

He pointed out that the then government of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) amended the constitution after a same situation was arose in 2017. “It was amended that the Election Commission should delimit the constituencies on provincial results”, he added.

“The final notification of 2017 census was issued later in Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government’s tenure,” he added.

The minister further said that a decision regarding the formation of caretaker setup will also be taken by Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP). “Constitutional amendment will have to be done for delimitation of constituencies between provinces”, he noted.

He also rejected a notion of ‘U-turn’ regarding the holding of elections, saying that the government left no stone unturned in completion of census till March. “The census work was delayed on provincial level,” he claimed.

The statement was issued after Prime Minister (PM) Shehbaz Sharif – in an interview – said upcoming elections would be held on the basis of the 2023 digital census and a meeting of the Council of Common Interest (CCI) was expected.

PM Shehbaz’s statement is a deviation from that of his ministers’ previous remarks, who said that the upcoming election would be held on the basis of the 2017 census.

“We have to hold the elections on the basis of the new census. When a census has been conducted, the polls should be held on its basis unless there is an obstacle that cannot be overcome,” the prime minister added.

The premier also said the census results would be referred to the CCI as soon as they were finalised.

Responding to a question regarding delays in elections, he said that this should not be the case but also added that “the ball will be in the election commission’s court”.